BANGKOK // Thailand confirmed its first case of Mers on Thursday, becoming the fourth Asian country to register the deadly virus this year.
Public health minister Rajata Rajatanavin said that a 75-year-old businessman from Oman had tested positive for the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.
“From two lab tests we can confirm that the Mers virus was found,” Mr Rajata said, adding the man had travelled to Bangkok for medical treatment for a heart condition.
“The first day he came he was checked for the virus. The patient ... contracted the Mers virus.”
The health minister said 59 others were being monitored for the virus, including three of the man’s relatives who travelled with him to Bangkok.
Mers is caused by a coronavirus from the same family as the one that triggered China’s deadly 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars).
The vast majority of Mers infections and deaths have been in Saudi Arabia, where more than 1,000 people have been infected since 2012, and about 454 have died.
Last month, a Mers outbreak erupted in South Korea resulting in 23 deaths so far. A total of 165 people have been infected and 6,700 people are in quarantine.
But there have been signs that the outbreak, the largest outside of Saudi Arabia, may be slowing in South Korea. The daily number of new cases has dropped to single digits this week compared to as many as 23 last week. Three were reported on Thursday - the lowest number since June 1.
All of the infections known to have occurred in South Korea have taken place in healthcare facilities. Three hospitals have been at least partially shut and two have been locked down with patients and medical staff inside.
The head of the World Health Organization on Thursday praised beleaguered South Korean officials and exhausted health workers, saying their efforts to contain Mers have put the country on good footing and lowered the public risk.
Margaret Chan said it is a good sign the disease has so far been confined to a handful of hospitals and isn’t spreading in the wider community.
“All the new information is reassuring, but that reassurance must be qualified,” Ms Chan said in Seoul, but she cautioned that much about Mers is unknown and there is still a need to strengthen monitoring and quarantine efforts.
China and the Philippines have also reported one Mers case this year.
Earlier, Thailand’s disease control department said it was screening travellers.
“We are checking 67 ports including land, sea and air,” said Sophon Mekthon, secretary-general of Thailand’s disease control department.
“We’ve told all hospitals in Thailand to be on alert. Those who come back from the Middle East and South Korea must be checked thoroughly.”
* Reuters and Associated Press